hey everyone, I have heard lots about this site through passing over the years, and figured I should join up!
I'm not really new to fishing, done it here and there, and caught a few fish in the past, but never really got into it. Last week I bought my fishing license, and it was more expensive than I remember, so I figure I should get my money's worth. I have read over the regulations but still have a few questions, and want to make sure I stay legal and ethical.
My license is for fresh water only, and does not have the salmon tag, where I am allowed to fish is pretty well explained in the regs, so no issues there. I am mostly looking at fishing lakes anyways (region 2), so I shouldn't have to worry about making sure i'm upstream of ____. The big question I have right now is about size, on page 23 of the regulation book, it mentions " There is no general minimum size limit for trout in lakes" which implies there is for streams, so if I were to catch a fish in a lake, and head home with it, and get pulled over by DFO, what is to stop them from thinking my tiny little trout was caught in a stream?
the next question is about Crappie, (which is what I am currently planning on going looking for) in the regs, I forget where, it mentions that the head and tail must be on the fish, but recommends cleaning out the guts and gills asap to make sure it doesn't spoil, makes sense... i've never cleaned gills off of a fish, only cut the head and gills off, and all of the videos I've found online seem to show filleting a non gutted fish, which I know I can't do at the lake I catch it at, but seem to think it wouldn't be a good idea to wait till I get home. The other thing I can't seem to find is size limits for any of the fish in the reg book, only a few with specific sizes listed as per the waterway they are caught in, so for instance, how would I find out how big a crappie has to be to keep, in Minnekhada slough, if the slough isn't listed anywhere in the book? it's a rather small fish to begin with. Bass is the other fish I wouldn't be upset to catch out of there, how can I find the size restrictions to keep one of them?
all of the regulations I can find regarding the crappie is that there is a daily limit of 20 (WOW!) and bass, is 4 per day. all I can find for size is "Size limits are listed with quotas in the Regional Regulations and in the Regional Water-Specific Tables" so does that mean that on the chart for what you can and can't catch in a lake or stream doesn't specify, or if the lake or stream isn't listed, there is no minimum or maximum size?
sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to make sure I was through, and didn't seem like a guy who just wanted people to tell him the answers to all the questions he could find simply by reading a couple pages of info.
I'm not really new to fishing, done it here and there, and caught a few fish in the past, but never really got into it. Last week I bought my fishing license, and it was more expensive than I remember, so I figure I should get my money's worth. I have read over the regulations but still have a few questions, and want to make sure I stay legal and ethical.
My license is for fresh water only, and does not have the salmon tag, where I am allowed to fish is pretty well explained in the regs, so no issues there. I am mostly looking at fishing lakes anyways (region 2), so I shouldn't have to worry about making sure i'm upstream of ____. The big question I have right now is about size, on page 23 of the regulation book, it mentions " There is no general minimum size limit for trout in lakes" which implies there is for streams, so if I were to catch a fish in a lake, and head home with it, and get pulled over by DFO, what is to stop them from thinking my tiny little trout was caught in a stream?
the next question is about Crappie, (which is what I am currently planning on going looking for) in the regs, I forget where, it mentions that the head and tail must be on the fish, but recommends cleaning out the guts and gills asap to make sure it doesn't spoil, makes sense... i've never cleaned gills off of a fish, only cut the head and gills off, and all of the videos I've found online seem to show filleting a non gutted fish, which I know I can't do at the lake I catch it at, but seem to think it wouldn't be a good idea to wait till I get home. The other thing I can't seem to find is size limits for any of the fish in the reg book, only a few with specific sizes listed as per the waterway they are caught in, so for instance, how would I find out how big a crappie has to be to keep, in Minnekhada slough, if the slough isn't listed anywhere in the book? it's a rather small fish to begin with. Bass is the other fish I wouldn't be upset to catch out of there, how can I find the size restrictions to keep one of them?
all of the regulations I can find regarding the crappie is that there is a daily limit of 20 (WOW!) and bass, is 4 per day. all I can find for size is "Size limits are listed with quotas in the Regional Regulations and in the Regional Water-Specific Tables" so does that mean that on the chart for what you can and can't catch in a lake or stream doesn't specify, or if the lake or stream isn't listed, there is no minimum or maximum size?
sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to make sure I was through, and didn't seem like a guy who just wanted people to tell him the answers to all the questions he could find simply by reading a couple pages of info.